Roberto Baggio in a duel with Spain’s Michel Salgado during a friendly in Genoa on Wednesday. (Reuters)

London: Germany suffered their worst away defeat in 65 years, Greece’s long unbeaten run ended and the Czech Republic lost again as Wednesday’s Euro 2004 warm-ups went badly wrong for some of the tournament hopefuls. Germany were thrashed 1-5 by Romania in Bucharest, Greece were beaten hollow 0-4 by fellow finalists the Netherlands, and the Czechs lost 0-1 at home to Japan.

Euro 2004 hosts Portugal drew 2-2 at home with Sweden, while Italy and Spain played out a 1-1 draw in Genoa.

There was no disputing the result of the night as Romania, who failed to qualify for the European championship, tore Germany to ribbons. The 2002 World Cup runners-up were without several leading players and had no answer as Romania raced into a 4-0 halftime lead with two goals from Ionel Danciulescu and one each from Mihaita Plesan and Razvan Rat.

Gabriel Caramarin added a fifth, with Philipp Lahm scoring Germany’s consolation in the last minute. It was Germany’s worst result since they also lost 1-5 at home to England in a World Cup qualifier in September 2001. The Czech Republic, who face Germany in the Euro finals, also came unstuck as, having gone 20 games without defeat, they lost their second in a row.

A first-half goal from Tatsuhiko Kubo gave Japan a victory that followed the Czechs’ 2-1 loss to Ireland in Dublin four weeks ago. Russia, fielding an experimental side including 18-year-old debutant goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev, went down 2-3 in Norway.

Spain took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute through substitute Fernando Torres but striker Christian Vieri levelled three minutes later with a thunderous header.

Greece’s impressive streak looked set to reach 16 games as they reached halftime in Eindhoven scoreless but Roy Makaay, Boudewijn Zenden and Johnny Heitinga netted for the Dutch in an 11-minute burst and Pierre van Hooijdonk grabbed a late fourth.

Two goals for striker Dimitar Berbatov and one for Zdravko Lazarov gave Bulgaria a 3-0 win over Cameroon, who arrived in Sofia only four hours before kickoff, while Croatia won 1-0 in Macedonia thanks to Ivan Klasnic’s goal. Ebbe Sand’s header was enough for Denmark to overcome Scotland 1-0 in Copenhagen, Switzerland beat Slovenia 2-1 in Geneva for their first win of the year, and Latvia continued the build-up to their first major tournament with a 0-0 home draw against Iceland.

Argentina beat Morocco 1-0 after paying homage to Diego Maradona who has been in hospital for 12 days. Christian Gonzalez scored the only goal in the 52nd minute of a match, which was promoting Morocco’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup finals.

Brazil showed their class with a dazzling performance to beat Hungary 4-1 on Wednesday. First-half goals from Kaka and a Luis Fabiano double wrapped up victory for Brazil by the break with a superb Ronaldinho solo effort rounding off the night at the Ferenc Puskas stadium.

Portugal needed an injury-time header from Nuno Gomes to snatch a 2-2 draw against Sweden. (REUTERS)